I'm brewing a Brewer's Best Smoked Porter kit tomorrow and I wanted to turn it into an Baltic Molasses Smoked Porter with some additions. I've never added to a BB kit, so wanted to come to the community to see if everything I'm planning to do makes sense. I've made a yeast starter with the included Safale-04 that came with the kit, and will be boiling 3 gallons instead of 2.5 because of the extra additions of 2lbs light DME, .5lbs of smoked malt, and a questionable amount of cocoa powder. I also picked up an additional 1oz of Mt. Hood hops for flavoring, because the recipe only came with bittering (1.5oz Cascade) and aroma (.5oz Mt. Hood)

I saw somewhere that 10tbsp cocoa powder is a regular addition to the boil, but I'm not hasty to add too much chocolate. Do you think 5tbsp in addition to the .5lbs Chocolate Malt will provide a decent chocolate taste without overpowering the smoked character? I added flavor hops and more Smoked Malt due to the fact that I'm upping the base malt with DME and wanted those flavors pronounced still. I like the idea of Blackstrap molasses in porters but have never experimented with it, how does the amount look?

The BB kit says that without these adds the ABV would be around 5.75-6.25% (OG of 1.058-1.062), I wanted to up that to around 7.5-8% with the additional DME. I also don't want to over-hop this porter or mask the malty-chocolatey-carmely base. Planning on doing a single stage fermentation on this one, possibly a month in primary.

I'd call it good. Your changes are reasonable and more or less balanced.

By the way, make certain you buy smoked malt and not peat-smoked malt. The latter is very potent.

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Thanks David! Was getting eager for a response as the steep water is already heating Yeah, the smoked malt that came with the kit is standard, and I picked up the other .5lb from LHBS as an equal addition so I'm assuming they matched it.

Brewed it today. Followed the above recipe but added 8 tbsp of cocoa powder in the last 10 mins with the molasses...smelled great! I also put a little more DME in which resulted in an OG reading of 1.080 at a perfect 70 degrees, so I pitched it. Was surprised how fast fermentation began with a starter!

Brewed it today. Followed the above recipe but added 8 tbsp of cocoa powder in the last 10 mins with the molasses...smelled great! I also put a little more DME in which resulted in an OG reading of 1.080 at a perfect 70 degrees, so I pitched it. Was surprised how fast fermentation began with a starter!

I guess we'll see how she tastes in a month.

Remember Chocolate Malt adds chocolate color not taste.

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I didn't know that, thanks for the info. Glad I added a bit of cocoa now She's fermenting like mad not even 20 hours later, trying to keep the ambient down just below 70. The temp sticker shows 73 inside the fermenter. Great smell from the airlock!

I have! It turned out very well. Tomorrow marks a month bottle conditioning, so I grabbed a six pack from the cellar last night and popped em in the fridge. The lady and I enjoyed one last night, and I have to give the additions their credit: The smoke is prevalent both on aroma and palate, although much less overpowering than the sample I took on bottling day, which is good. Glad I added the extra or it may have not been there at all! There are deep roasty notes blended with an earthy, almost thick chewyness that I have to attribute to the blackstrap molasses and that works nicely with the slight coffee and chocolate tones down there with the roastyness. The chocolate is there, but mainly in the finish. Its a dry, back of the tongue/throat chocolate. I like it, but would possibly sub dry powder for bakers bars next time as the dryness doesn't really contribute to the roundness of all of the other notes in the porter. Makes you want to take that next sip all the more because of it though! Overall its a successful brew, strong at 8%, and I'm sure will be even more enjoyable next September when I bring it on the yearly flyfishing trip. I aptly named this one "Studderin' Steelhead Smoked Stout Porter" cause you have more than a couple and you best be careful walkin' the river! Hope yours turns out awesome, I'll be interested to know what you end up doing with it! Cheers!

Well I'm still very new at this, (smoked porter being my third batch ever) so I probably won't get as creative as you did. I may put a little chocolate in just for fun, but I probably will stick with the recipe otherwise. Glad yours came out so well!

Enjoying one this evening and most of the dryness is diminishing after a day or two in the fridge. It's very balanced. That's the beauty of kits! You can add a bit here and there and it won't ruin the end product. I think this was beer #5 for me, so I'm fairly new at the hobby as well. Don't be afraid to tweak the kits... That's what makes them your own Best of luck, and go with your gut!